A New Direction

We here at Transneptune Games have had a breakthrough. There’s been a lot of talk on this blog about things like “story” and “narrative”. We’ve talked about moral choice, the feel of a mechanic. We’ve even talked about, dare I say it?, fun.

But we’ve realized that none of this is sufficient to make the game we want to play.The game we want to play needs one thing, and a lot of it: orcs. We need to have a game that’s like 3:16 Carnage amongst the Stars, but instead of killing aliens, you kill orcs. And instead of rolling to see how many you kill, you have to roll to see exactly what injuries you inflict on each orc, and what injuries they inflict on you.

So we’re scrapping our current game plans in favor of a new game: Oubliettes & Orcs.

I think a crucial part of this system will be determining when you go in relation to the hordes of orcs, but to balance things, you have to roll against each orc for relative initiative, and then combine this into a master initiative chart. We think it would be more realistic if you get the chance to act multiple times, rather than having to wait for each orc in the horde.

We’re planning an initial release of a 300-page hardback full-color rulebook, with supplements every six months or so after that. The first supplement will be about how to get better at going first, and the second I think will be about different kinds of pie to take from the orcs. The core will include raspberry and blueberry, but I really hated to see us cut strawberry-rhubarb, so that’ll be in the pie supplement. We don’t have titles for these yet.

Secondly, we’ve realized that we’ve talked an awful lot about Exalted and it’s becoming increasingly clear that while the system is very very good, it had one flaw; lack of Transneptune Games input. That’s right, our second game line-up will be an overhaul of the Exalted system. We hope to address core issues such the insufficient number of charms, the unreasonable lack of a weapon better than the Grand Goremaul (just a taste: GrandER Goremaul!), and finally, we’re adding a fifth Virtue. That’s right, you’ll now have access to Heart and its two virtue flaws.

As a final note, we’re also working on a game working-titled Pretension. We’ve been playing it a lot here at Transneptune Games, and it’s really fun!